Update 9/29/05: Wired published an excellent article on Meetro today.
Company: What is it?
Meetro is an instant messaging service that works both as a stand alone client and also integrates with other IM services (AOL and ICQ for now, others to come later). Meetro determines where you are phyically located automatically (or you can override by telling it manually) and shows you other meetro users near you. It’s a cool way to see when your friends are nearby, and to meet random people who are physically close to you.
Meetro currently only works on the Windows platform, with Mac and other clients coming in Q4. The download is small – 3.5 mb, and registration was very simple.
Overall, the service works very well. I chatted with two of the founders (Wendell and Paul) and also asked a couple of random people near me what they thought of it – everyone was very enthusiastic and loved the service.
This is an application that will stay on my desktop. It will become increasingly useful as they integrate additional IM platforms, as I run five on my desktop currently (MSN, Yahoo, AOL, Skype, Gizmo).
Additional Screen Shots:
Tags: meetro, instantmessaging, socialnetworking, AOL, ICQ, MSN, skype, yahoo, chicago, techcrunch, web2.0